The fact that humans are aware of time and space demands that science investigates consciousness from a near-spiritual perspective on existence. Physicalism is a worldview rooted in the notion that everything is physical with no room for any other domain, such as epiphenomenalism or soul. This essay answers Thomas Nagel’s viewpoint on the mystery of physicalism, which may explain the subjective nature of experience. The adopted viewpoint does not reject the stand of physicalism but holds out hope for a new approach to investigating the perceptional aspects of being a living non-human. This paper aims to identify the influence of physicalism on human understanding of reality while introducing new notions such as the sense of time, the science of consciousness, and the idea of the present in defining what it means to be alive. The primary hypothesis is based on vibrational energy as the fundamental force. The influence of intelligent energy, which is responsible for memory, intellect, imagination, and reasoning, distinguishes humans from bats. Subjectivity and its related experiences can be explained through physicalism solely, which is evidenced by the measurability of the human brain, subatomic particles, and the perception of time.
Perception of Time
Firstly, physicalism can explain subjective experience since the perception of time is both measurable and differentially experienced. The sense of time differs substantially between humans and bats due to the time perception variance. Psychologists and neuroscientists believe that humans have many complimentary systems that control the experience of time, even though the perception of time is not related to a single sensory system (Segun 31). The study uses a widely dispersed method comprising the cerebral cortex, brainstem, and basal ganglia to manage memory performance. The researchers acknowledge that at the base of the forebrain, cells in the dorsal striatum detect the frequency of these cells’ activity. The trends suggest that the representation of time might be created by the rhythmic frequency of cells in the higher cortex.
There are two modalities of time experienced internally or externally, depending on the physiology of an experiencer. Physicalism concurs with the observations but distinguishes between explicit and implicit time. Physicalism estimates that the endurance of a stimulus on such a basis would need accurate timing. However, some suggest that specialized neurons process extremely brief durations in the brain’s earliest sensory regions. In humans, implicit scheduling estimates the number of clock cycles between one and an upcoming event that is anticipated to transpire in the near future. These two-time assessments do not use the same neuroanatomical regions specific to evolutionary biology. The cerebellum in humans is required for seeing the past, present, and future in such sentient species. For sentient beings, implicit timing accomplishes motor tasks within both the conscious and subconscious realms.
Physicalism within the Context of Physics
Secondly, modern physics is continuously and constantly expanding the cumulative knowledge of the nature of the universe with a sole physical perspective. From the level of astrophysics to quantum physics, no reasonable or justifiable observations were made to indicate the presence of something corresponding to anything other than within the realm of physicalism. In philosophy, the hypothesis of vibration has been developed as energy that resides inside the subatomic levels of matter. Even things that seem to be stationary vibrate, oscillate, and resonate at different frequencies. From this scientific standpoint, resonance emerges as a vibrational shift defined by oscillation between two states. The idea emphasizes that all matter is ultimately vibrations of many underlying fields, with the slowest rates of flux being categorized as physical things. From such a perspective, everything in nature vibrates at every scale, including awareness as the foundation of the human experience of reality and energy. Thus, even these philosophical ideas fell within the domain of physicalism.
The Human Brain and Subjective Experience
Thirdly, practically all activities of the human brain can be explained through physicalism alone in its derived scientific fields, such as chemistry and biology. The human brain is a neuronal network that employs vibration and energy flow to generate human awareness. Neuroscientists have shown that large-scale neuron firing happens at measured frequencies in human brains, and mammalian consciousness is believed to be often related to several types of neuronal sync (Hosseini and Abbas 611). Pascal Fries, a German neurophysiologist, has studied how multiple electrical patterns synchronize in the brain to form several kinds of human consciousness (Segun 31). According to Fries, focusing on gamma, beta, and theta waves may demonstrate primates’ required relationship between physicalism and awareness (Segun 33). In the brain, clusters of neurons make electrical oscillations utilizing action potentials to communicate with one another.
The human brain research based solely on physicalism made it identifiable that subjective experience is strongly interconnected with the brain’s functional features. The notions of electrical signal speed between neurons imply that biological creatures may rapidly communicate information through different electrical and electrochemical biophysical channels. Studies in the physiology of living things indicate that faster information flows result in a heightened awareness of the present on a grander scale than in animals of comparable sizes, such as bats (Wohlgemuth et al. 251). The patterns demonstrate that biological structures of the brain’s neural networks have a significantly more vital intrinsic link that characterizes sentience. From such a basis, humans have the most complex neural networks linked to sentience as a fundamental aspect of being.
Moreover, even if a new discovery is revealed indicating some form of panpsychism or sentience in everything, the given conceptual framework will still be compatible with physicalism. In other words, subjective experience is most likely tied to something material and physical, which leaves no room for other explanations, such as dualism’s epiphenomenal ideas of the soul. Based on the observable behavior of the energies surrounding us, ranging from electrons to atoms to molecules, to bacteria to mice, bats, and rats, all forms of existence are likely at least somewhat aware. The intricacy of brain connections is directly proportional to both the ability to detect time and the primary distinction. Despite the limitations of physicalism in describing time-space perception, the science of consciousness is based on the principles of vibration. As matter grows more intertwined and complex, so does the mind, and vice versa.
Conclusion
In conclusion, physicalism alone is compatible with a productive study of the subjective character and does not require any other domain of explanation due to evidence from the perception of time, the human brain, and subatomic particles. However, the study requires a radically new approach that identifies the influence of physicalism on human understanding of reality while introducing new notions such as the sense of time, the science of consciousness, and the idea of the now. Consciousness improves the possibility that an organism will focus its attention and, eventually, its motions on whatever is most crucial for its survival and procreation. The basic argument of this paper is that the links that enable large-scale awareness are shared by humans and other primates but are mainly undeveloped in many smaller living forms, such as bats, which can only see the present moment as the ultimate reality. The science of consciousness presents a superior perceptive of reality as the signals in a human brain achieve synchronization far greater than the number of neurons and neural connections in bats, thereby giving humans a higher perception of time and sentience.
Works Cited
Hosseini, Samad, and Abbas Yazdani. “Phenomenal Consciousness; a Challenge to Physicalism.” Journal of Philosophical Investigations, vol 15, no. 37, 2021, pp 607-626. doi: 10.22034/jpiut.2022.49453.3081
Segun, Samuel T. “Neurophilosophy and the Problem of Consciousness: An Equiphenomenal Perspective.” New Conversations on the Problems of Identity, Consciousness, and Mind. Springer, Cham, vol, 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 33-65. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-14262-9_3
Wohlgemuth, Melville J., Ninad B. Kothari, and Cynthia F. Moss. “Functional Organization and Dynamic Activity in the Superior Colliculus of the Echolocating Bat, Eptesicus Fuscus.” Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 38 no. 1, 2018, pp. 245-256.